Pitchfork

Used to be that when New York rap's big dogs stepped on each other's paws, they'd just obliquely dis each other in song. They're still doing that, but these days, they're also calling in on each other's radio interviews and yelling at each other, and the magic of the internet is taking those interviews way outside the five boroughs. So now, when 50 Cent bashes New York mega-indie Koch Records while he's talking with Hot 97's Angie Martinez, he might end up getting into it with Koch General Manager Alan Grunblatt (50: "You wanna be on the air? Like a artist?") They're talking about money, about contract ephemera, about back-room deals, and they're putting it all out there for public consideration. Cam phones in as well, and he laughs and screams a lot, taunting 50 about his own label's sales: "Curtis! How much did the Mobb sell, Curtis?" 50, meanwhile, sounds calm and reasonable even as he acts like a dick, so I guess he wins. After Angie cuts Cam off, 50 muses to himself as much as to us: "I think that he thinks he is actually able to compete with me." And so the world becomes witness to two rich men arguing with each other about who's richer, a repellent yet somehow fascinating spectacle. I really hope it doesn't turn into anything more.